December 12, 2018

Oval Office Meeting and Looming Shutdown

Letter from the founder...

Phew, it’s been a busy few months! As you'll see below, we’ve gotten a makeover. We took to heart all your incredible feedback, and launched a new site that betters tells the story of who we are and what we do.

We also just launched a holiday campaign to #FixTheFilter! We all have that one relative... This holiday, let's encourage them to skip the clickbait, bypass the trolls, and #FixTheFilter with The Flip Side. Here are quick links for Facebook and Twitter. Please share far and wide!

The past year has been quite the journey for this bootstrapped entrepreneur. I began making a list of people to thank, and literally ran out of room in my notepad. I’ll stick to a small handful so as not to bore you all toomuch...

Thank you Angela, Alfredo, and the Function Labs team for working tirelessly to get the bears just right on our new site. Thank you Isaiah, Charlie, and Audrey for toiling through a hundred drafts to create a kickass campaign video. Thank you Ian for always jumping in to fix my tech blunders, and Allison for being our north star through it all.

A HUGE thank you to the entire Flip Side team for their incredible work day in and day out, and of course, my co-editor and business partner Jihan, whose knowledge of esoteric grammar rules never ceases to amaze. (I’m writing this at 3 am after he’s gone to bed; sorry Jihan if this is riddled with errors!)

Lastly, I’d like to take a moment to thank you — our readers. Thank you for taking a chance on us, bearing with our missteps, and sharing our work with friends and family. It truly means the world.

“The first rule of shutdown fights is never say you are for a shutdown. Voters invariably oppose this kind of stunt and see it as evidence of incompetence and unnecessary rancor by the governing party…

Some point out that “65 percent of Republicans do not think Trump should compromise, even if it means a shutdown, and 63 percent say building a wall should be a top priority. Among strong Republicans, just 19 percent believe Trump should compromise on wall funding to avoid a shutdown. More than 90 percent of all Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration… [This] helps explain why both sides are digging in their heels.”Washington Post

“As important as border security unquestionably is, Trump’s proposed ‘beautiful’ wall wouldn’t meaningfully hinder illegal immigration, drug smuggling or any other problem the president has cited as a rationale. Illegal border crossings have shrunk over the last two decades, and drugs are smuggled primarily through tunnels or legal entry points… lawmakers should continue to resist throwing $5 billion worth of tax dollars at what amounts to a vanity project for Trump.”Los Angeles Times

After 9/11, “the administration threw billions of dollars at border security, dramatically tightened visa screening, made passports more secure, and instituted systems for gathering information about travelers before they reached the United States… border security is an important component of counterterrorism—but in the United States, that part of the problem was already largely solved before Trump’s tenure.”The Atlantic

From the Right

The right supports Trump’s strong stance, but is divided about which party will gain from a shutdown.

“To be honest, there’s no better moment for a shutdown to signal seriousness of purpose than right now. The GOP’s as far away from the next election as it can be and the opposing party is about to take over a house of Congress. An early test of wills will show Democrats up front that Trump intends to make border security a top issue over the next two years and that he won’t take no for an answer.”Hot Air

“According to the Department of Homeland Security: ‘On average last year, DHS prevented 10 individuals tied to terror – known or suspected terrorists – each day from traveling or attempting to travel to the United States’... Added to this number are the 17,000 criminals and 3,000 special interest aliens that U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended in 2017… Democrats are on the wrong side of the American people.” Fox News

Others note that “this is the President's last best chance to get the wall going… Offer dreamers the right to stay in the country without threat of deportation in exchange for the wall. Don't offer up citizenship. They get the right to stay, and they no longer have to live in the shadows… Then toss it to the Democrats. They can either reject it and let dreamers live with the fear of deportation. Or they can take it and fund the wall as well. Make it their choice.”The Resurgent